My new tank - step by step account

[hanss]

hi good do u have somthing more

[wayne]

Not really. I had a bit of a build up of cyano at one point , but got rid of it by raising alk, flow and upping my water changes and sand hoovering. Other than that this tank is pretty stable. I tried to add in a yellow blue damsel, but had to get it out after a while as the wrasse was repeatedly beating it up pretty badly. Other than that a nice stable tank.
Maybe the point is that by being careful and thinking you can get good long term success for a reasonable price?

[1979camaro]

seems like a reasonable point to me...

[Roger Clark]

Hello Wayne,

I have been reading you saga of setting up your tank and I ran across your idea of using superglue and milliput to help in aquascaping. So then the super glue wont have any effect of the fish and what is milliput.

Regards

Roger Clark

Originally Posted by wayne

Damn my eyes! Flight cancelled, so waiting for the skimmer in the post.
Anyway things stable in the tank. So this weekend went to the local art shop and got a coupl of packets of milliput. This is 2 part epoxy clay that hardens when mixed together and will harden underwater, so is a godsend for aquascaping. Covered the floor with newspaper and got all rock out. I then separated it into 2 piles , separated by surface texture. The smaller pile had a smoother surfce texture than the big. The smaller became a pillar type structure, the rougher surfaced became a blocky , open reef in two parts , linked by a semi cave. Both structures are approx 12 - 14 inches high. They are airy, allowing good waterflow all the way through, and don't take up too much 'floor space'. As they are help together with milliput they are not likely to collapse, it's possible to make more ope structures, and if necessary it's possible to lift them out in one piece for netting fish, cleaning or whatever.
This activity caused a very small ammonia and then nitrate spike but this disappeared in a couple of hours. A day later I put down my substrate, a 1/2 inch or 1 cm or so of oolitic sand. Oolites are little round balls of normally aragonite - if you want to know more, do a google search on them. These are about 2 mm in size I guess.
The tank is now after 10 days getting a nice brown diatom algae bloom. Also if I look in the tank at night I can see quite a few copepods, and some bristleworms.
I have started using invertfood as I want to get some organics in the tank to push along the biological development, and I don't feel there's enoguh organic load at the moment, but I don't feel it's been going anything like long enough yet to add any fish.

[wayne]

No, superglue is good to use for sticking stuff like frags and small pieces. It has no tensile strengh though, so it's easier to use milliput and so on for jobs like propping up pieces of rock.
Milliput is a 2 part non toxic modelling clay. The original is a creamy white colour, deltec and aquamedic (I think) resell it with a purple dye, but coralline covers it pretty quickly anyway. It is nontoxic, and will dry underwater (but dries faster, better out). It isn't especially sticky in my experience tho'

[wilsonriverfish]

any news on the outcome?

[wayne]

What, of this tank? It got broken down when I rationalised my tanks (down from numerous to two), or basically the entire contents got a new, much larger glass box round them.
Most of the original inhabitants are alive - the shrimp and six line from early 2004 are going strong of course, the large hermit crab (which with the shrimp was the first bought large animals) died a few moths ago.

I was pleased with this - it convinced me a half decent freshwater aqurist can build a very fine and interesting salt tank for a moderate expense

[fishkid64]

Hey wayne i know its been a terribly long time, but what about an update, anything new?

[wayne]

Yes , it has been a while. For users in Europe this site has some shocking performance issues around, I think, the google ads. Anyway, this tank is no more in use as a display, but it does function as my sump on my 180flat (52 *36 *36). Of the early livestock the hermit crab mentioned very early is still going strong (in a nano currently) and so is the 6 line wrasse. I'd have to see what else is mentioned as livestock, but the bicolour angel was sold (foolishly). The shrimp (which along the hermit were the first livestock) died middle last year.
I was pretty satisfied with the tank - it demonstrated to me that the careful aquarist could buy and setup a tank that was successful for a lot less money than people think (especially with the onrush of overpriced all in one nanos). All of the kit is still in use personally except the T5 fisture I sold (also foolish as I could it use it now for the nano).
I hope it made a thought provoking read.

[SALTY WATERS]

Wow, yes I have not seen you around in a while... not that I'm on much anymore either since I sold off the tank for my big 5month Eurotrip.
Good to see ya back on!